The present invention relates to enclosures for housing computer disk drive carriers. More specifically, the present invention provides a backplane for use with such enclosures which can accommodate multiple disk drive carrier designs.
Computer disk drive carriers, particularly those capable of live insertion and removal (i.e., “hot-pluggable” disk drives), are typically installed in carrier frames which provide mechanical support and guidance for the specific carrier type. Within such carrier frames, each carrier is latched into place and secured to a backplane which provides the interface to the rest of the computer system. Indicators, e.g., light emitting diodes or light pipe terminations, representing disk drive status and activity are typically provided on the front bezel of such carriers. These indicators are typically controlled by electronics or light sources on the backplane to which the carrier is secured.
As is well known to those familiar with the industry, the variability in the form factors and interface configurations of computer disk drive carriers corresponds roughly to the number of manufacturers providing such devices. This is particularly the case with regard to the manner in which status information is transmitted to the front bezel of the carriers. That is, the nature and position of each carrier's status information interface relative to the backplane vary considerably. As a result, carrier frames are typically constructed with mechanical guides and backplanes which are suitable for only a single carrier type. Not only does this create barriers to using disk drives from different manufacturers, it also represents manufacturing inefficiencies in that a different type of backplane is typically designed and manufactured for each carrier type.